


Friends Don't

by HogwartsToAlexandria, Nonexistenz



Series: Marie's Events and Bang Fics [8]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Dancing, Digital Art, Falling In Love, First Kiss, First Meetings, Flashbacks, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Married Couple, RhodeyTony Mini Bang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:55:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21619474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HogwartsToAlexandria/pseuds/HogwartsToAlexandria, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nonexistenz/pseuds/Nonexistenz
Summary: One time Jim met a scrawny genius teenager and… all the ways he's known they were meant for each other since then.A story of RhodeyTony through the years and the unbreakable bond that unites them.Written/Arted for the RhodeyTony Mini Bang
Relationships: James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Tony Stark
Series: Marie's Events and Bang Fics [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1649737
Comments: 9
Kudos: 98
Collections: RhodeyTony Mini Bang 2019





	Friends Don't

**Author's Note:**

> RhodeyTony lovers, here comes our offerings for the Mini Bang that ends today. We sincerely hope you'll enjoy our works. 
> 
> I have Betheflame to thank for being the best cheerleader and beta ever, Nonexistenz for being both a wholesome human and an amazing artist, and the mods for setting this up in the first place!

_May, 2033_

  
"You with me?" Tony's voice suddenly cut through the haze that Jim had been slowly sinking into. He cleared his throat even as he blinked a few times to chase the blurriness away and refocus on his husband - who was currently staring at him with his head cocked to the side and a look in his eyes that meant he wouldn't let it go. 

  
So Jim would have to tell him what he'd been thinking about, also known as, his personal mushy minute of remembering their past, going through some memories that popped into his mind seemingly without logic but always with that same theme of "Damn I love this man", playing in the background like a sonata. 

  
Time to get a deep breath in before Tony would grin and call him an old sap. 

  
One didn't renew their vows every other day, this was a big fucking deal. And he was ready for it, oh so ready to see Tony in a wedding tux again, and to vow to him, one more time, maybe not even the last, that this was it, that he was it, that Jim would never have dreamed of a better life than the one they shared. 

  
But if he could please remember to lower the toilet lid once in a while it'd be great.

  
Two weeks to go before D-Day. 

* * *

  
It was probably the most cliché of ways Jim could go about retelling his memories but it was nonetheless true: he remembered the day he'd met Tony like it was yesterday; like even then, when they were nothing but two blokes stuck between their teenage and adult years, undecided, even then, Jim's brain had known to take in every detail and not let go of them as the years passed. 

  
He could have easily forgotten half of everything that happened that day, or the days that followed. He did forget most of the people that had gone to class with them after all. Life's like that, you meet people you think will count forever because all you know is that right now, right as you think it, they're all that matters somehow, the only people that inhabit your daily life and the thoughts that go with it. But that's all very nice and pretty in theory, and all very fragile in the end. 

  
Jim didn't mourn the loss of the dozen Daddy's boys he'd met and internally scoffed at during his years at MIT, he didn't cry over the faded memories of one-time-one-party pals he couldn't even remember the names of now. A loss he did mourn was Tony's when life had decided they go their separate ways after their studies ended. 

  
You can swear all you want that you won't lose touch, that phones exist and wow did they evolve since he and Tony did their own version of the teary goodbyes; life makes it so that you drift apart, sometimes. 

  
But that's going too far too fast. 

  
Jim smiled as he looked at his husband, busy as he was preparing - what _was_ he preparing? Cakes, maybe, Morgan's kids couldn't get enough of those - and focused back on the journal he was attempting to write in, all so he could give it to Tony on the night of their renewal. 

  
_"Write it down, you might forget._ " Tony used to say back when they were two kids working on element formation and compounding metals and computing AIs.

  
So Jim was writing down their lives. 

  
A miracle he'd been able to keep this thing a secret all those weeks, and maybe Jim was growing a bit reckless writing as he was, in his office with the door open on the kitchen, so close to the other man. Except that, Tony cooking wasn't exactly all there, _"Why does this have to be so complicated_ " and _"Fuck this I'm ordering from the cupcake place, they won't know the difference."_ All threats he never followed through with, and all hints that Jim was actually quite safe right where he was, under Tony's nose, to keep up with his personal, super secret project. 

  
He picked the blue fountain pen Tony had gifted him somewhere around their eighth anniversary and, just as he turned to a new page, closed his eyes, smiling as he let the memory wash over him.

  
_The grounds of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were always the greenest thing at the very start of the year, something Jim had taken to cherishing very much in the year he'd already spent there. The sun was still out in late September and the people were still willingly sitting around in the grass, chatting and not too fussed about their upcoming mountain of work. That was how you recognized newcomers, too; the ones who were already neck-deep in their textbooks even though classes had barely begun._

  
_This was how James Rhodes met Tony Stark._

  
_Not in a library, or a lab, or even the cafeteria. He met the man he would marry thirteen years later, as he tripped on the laces of his trainers going down the few stairs of the main building leading to the grounds. He tripped._

  
_To this day, Tony still denied he did but Jim, and about fifty other students could ignore his pouts and protests - they were there._

  
_Jim had nearly dropped the hot dog he'd been munching on when he saw him - not that he'd been looking to begin with - and then did drop it when the guy - boy really - didn't get up right away._

  
_He'd been torn between laughing and feeling concerned, which was always his predicament when people fell down this miserably in plain sight, but he'd picked up the pace to reach him and started gathering the many books he'd let fall down as he slipped._

  
_"Fuck, like I needed this, dammit," he'd heard the guy and Jim had smiled a bit. Sure, he'd have been pissed too._

  
_"You okay, man?" Jim had finally asked when he'd collected all five books laying on the steps and below._

  
_And that's when the clichés kept falling in and in and in- that's when Tony had looked up, huffing as he'd sat on his ass, his jeans torn and scrapes barring both his knees and his palms. And Jim's nearly-seventeen-year-old heart had jumped. Well hi there._

  
_Tony'd looked so young and yet so… Jim had never been able to put his finger on it, still couldn't, no matter how much or how many times he tried, no matter how much Tony might need him to tell him why he loved him as he did, Jim couldn't say but something happened that very day, that very moment and the following, when Tony had put his hand in Jim's and let himself be pulled up as he'd blushed, something that sealed it for the both of them._

  
_"I'm James Rhodes, most people call me Jim," Jim had squeezed Tony's scraped hand gently and smiled when Tony'd done the same._

  
_"I'm Tony, most people don't know who I am."_

  
By then, Jim had been a popular but quiet part of M.I.T.'s grand social scene, the one people knew would listen to them, help them out or rightfully flip them off if needed. The nice guy, who was funny when he wanted to be but mostly just spent his time studying for his PhD. 

  
After he'd met Tony though? Even Jim's professors started raising their eyebrows in both annoyance and mild amusement when they passed the pair of them in the hallways. All Tony had needed to go from the shy kid who tripped on his own feet and flinched around brash personalities was what they found in each other. Jim laid back on his studies just enough to have an actual social life and Tony uncovered his pranky, witty self. The good old days. 

  
The cliché stopped there though, almost. Jim remembered their first meeting with acute precision and their many prankster moments with a fondness he reserved for the rare and meaningful things, but he couldn't lie and say they fell in love then. Because they didn't. Not really. 

  
What was true, and remained unchanged so many years later - more years in fact than Tony's vanity would contend with - was that if there was one person James Rhodes could have met that could fill him with equal amounts of mirth, adoration, and fury it was him, and Jim let that truth sink in all the way during their time at MIT without batting an eye. And people thought he was aloof. Huh.

  
The only setbacks they ever came across then, apart for the usual rows of young guys who were around each other 24/7, were due to the one thing, the one person whose name was never heard in their house anymore. Howard Stark. If Jim had only heard of the man for his technological advances before that, he quickly came to associate him with the changes in Tony's behavior anytime they came back from a holiday or another. It never missed. Tony would go back to his shrunken self, recoiling from loud noises and whimpering in his sleep - there's not much you can hide from a roommate, and even less from one's best friend when his name happens to be James Rhodes. 

  
It lasted a day or it lasted a week, never the same amount and yet always the same signs, always the same mechanisms and Jim tried all he could, until eventually, the strain in Tony's smile became less visible again, the dark circles under his eyes less rooted and the movie night cuddles came back full force. 

  
Oh yeah, because those were a thing. And a good indicator of Tony's mental health. Certainly not something Jim came to crave when he was away, or what he longed for on the long nights of his service in the army after graduation.

  
Jim still wrote about those in the notebook. Tony knew by now anyway, how much those nights had meant to him, and how instrumental they had eventually been in making him realize his feelings might have been going a different direction than what he'd anticipated.

  
It had been too late once he'd realized, or so he'd thought, and it had also seemed like a lost cause, getting Tony to see his feelings had evolved somehow. And then graduation happened, and then Jim joined the army, and then Tony bent to his father's will, and then… Jim still thought about him all the time. Made his bunk bed less lonely, made being so far away from home less likely to cause him homesickness; he could just get lost in the memory of Tony's smile, laugh, warmth… 

  
"Dinner's ready!" Tony half-yelled, half-sung, making Rhodey startle and put the notebook back in his drawer, under a pile of paperwork he knew Tony wouldn't touch in a thousand years. 

  
"Coming!"

* * *

  
A week before the ceremony to renew their vows, it was all Jim thought about. Retired soldiers had little obligations throughout the day after all.

  
Tony was out, he had mysteriously slipped out of bed before dawn and Jim knew, if he had a secret, Tony might have one too, whether he would find out about it before next week was anyone's bet though. Who knew what that dork was up to. _My dork,_ Jim thought though, _my beautiful dork._

  
He'd found a note in the fridge as he made himself breakfast, a thing Tony had come to do a few years back when Jim had left the force and had found the time on his hands was a little maddening when his husband was still going into work every day until late at night. They'd made it work anyway, had reworked their schedule so it didn't feel like Jim was spending his life waiting for Tony, and Jim had found things to occupy himself. With little sticky notes in the fridge, and in the drawers of his desk, and on the bathroom mirrors, that were all some soft shit Tony wouldn't dare say out loud even now, unless it was a very special occasion or he was very tired and not fully in control of his stupidly clever brain. 

  
_"You're the stars to my sky."_ The note said today, and Jim laughed just picturing the other man scribble that before he left. And then he smiled, smitten as he'd been since day 1 even if he hadn't known that was what the weird feeling in his stomach was then, as he pictured the way Tony had most certainly bitten his bottom lip as he thought of what to write; and how he must have passed both his hands in his hair as he looked at it where he'd stuck it on Jim's OJ. 

  
Jim fished out his phone from his sweatpants, once again blessing Tony for ordering a bunch of pairs that had pockets on the very front instead of on the sides where Jim's prosthetics sat snuggly. He smiled at the silly face of his grandson on his screensaver before quickly texting Tony. 

  
_"Love you, too."_

  
Then, Jim ate, slowly, relaxed as he was, standing in his kitchen, looking out into the yard and thinking of the next chapter of their lives he wanted to write about, just when he'd be done with his reheated pancake. He shot Morgan a text as well before sitting down at his desk like he'd done every day for the past few weeks. 

  
_"Hey love, got the dress from Mom?"_

  
He allowed himself to think back on the dress Pepper wore at their first wedding and he grinned to himself, knowing Tony would lose his shit when he would see Morgan in it as he walked down the aisle. Because he would be the one to walk down, no discussion there. He knew Morgan worked the morning shift that day though, so he put down his phone and got his head to focus on the past once again, just a little further than the wedding, just a little closer than the start of his military career and the death of Tony's parents. The next time they'd met, and how it felt like it was their first time all over again, almost.

  
_2008_

  
_The warehouse was filled with a buzzing noise that was altogether whirring of plane motors, wind gushing in and out and rattling metal sheets, and voices and laughs, and Jim's forty-year-old fatigue after a day of meetings, each one more boring than the last. Until that moment, where above all that and the headache forming behind his eyes, Jim heard one voice. It took him awhile to openly search for the man it belonged to, but when he was sure it really was Tony's, he couldn't not look._

  
_And he saw him._

  
_Right there, by the entry of the warehouse, surrounded by privates and a bald, gray-and-white-striped-suit-clad bear of a man keeping his hand on his shoulder all throughout the little time Jim spent, just, staring. That's also the moment Tony chose to turn his head around and their eyes met._

  
_The curious, then gradually delighted grin that made its way through Tony's features warmed something inside Jim that he'd put on the back burner for years. It took a minute before the Colonel of the base extracted Tony from the excited recruits and led him to where Jim was still busy oiling his gear. He let go of it all to salute his superior but was quickly put to rest._

  
_"Captain, I trust you know who this gentlemen are." The Colonel raised an eyebrow._

  
_"Only partly, I must admit, Sir." Jim said before turning to Tony, "Mr. Stark," he smiled, then dropped it, "and you must be…"_

  
_"Obadiah Stane, Stark Industries Board Member, weapon manufacture branch." The man extended a hand, which Jim shook, not looking away the whole time it lasted. The hand the man had on Tony's shoulder hadn't budged an inch and Jim's stomach gave a painful pang. He frowned as Stane vised down on his hand before pulling it away._

  
_"Nice to meet you," Jim said through tight lips, unsure if he'd ever meant something less in his life._

  
And he hadn't. Nearly twenty-five years later, Jim had yet to meet anyone he hated more than Stane and more than the man himself, the influence he'd managed to get over Tony and the extent they'd had to go to make it stop. But if that piece of shit had been a nasty piece of gum under his shoe for years, Jim wasn't about to let him take over now, so he moved on, to the next time he'd seen Tony, the most meaningful one. 

  
_New Years 2009_

  
_He was dancing, with one, then another, then yet another woman. They looked as different as women come, laughing as he joked without his lips moving an inch, clutching their ringed hands on his shoulders, red, maroon, nude lips grinning. Tony's face never changed. From where he was standing, just inside the door to the lobby of the hotel rented by the Stark Foundation for its annual New Year's gala, Jim could just see the brightness of the smile he flashed for the photographers, and the way the tightness around his eyes never moved._

  
_This wasn't how he remembered Tony. This wasn't how he sounded in the texts they'd taken to exchanging again after their chance meetings on the base at the beginning of the summer. This wasn't Tony, not really, and even after all these years, Jim could tell._

  
_He felt gauche standing there in his dress uniform, as puzzled as he'd felt when he first read the invitation Ms Potts had sent to his apartment as he watched the flock of gala-ready people chatting and swaying everywhere around him. This was not his scene._

  
_It didn't matter._

  
_Not once Tony spotted him in his hideout. Not with the way his whole stance seemed to smoothen so much Jim blinked. Had to be wishful thinking._

  
It never was. Every time in their life since then that Jim had thought what he saw in Tony was just him projecting his own feelings onto the man's words, or gestures, or looks, like he'd done that night so many years ago, Tony had proved him wrong. Every single time. In many ways, both by forcing himself to articulate his emotions into words - something they were both still working on and likely always would be - and with comments and attitudes so understated and spontaneous that Jim had only ever had one choice, accepting the truth of them. 

  
_That night, a few minutes after they'd made eye-contact, because Tony was a gentleman always, he'd ditched his umpteenth dance partner and winked at Jim as he made his way past him, and into the deserted lobby._

  
_"Would you…" Tony hesitated, his eyes jumping from Jim's to his feet and back, his fingers playing with his bowtie, "would you dance with me?"_

  
_Times had changed since the 90s, and they had too, both of them growing into both more assured and more broken versions of themselves, fractured at the seams, shaky on their legs if vibrant in their words. And Tony had made the first move that Jim had been too chicken to make for a literal decade, so much so that they'd lost all those years._

  
_He took in a sharp breath as he let himself smile into Tony's worried gaze._

  
_"Would I dance with you?" Jim took a step forward, finally detaching himself from the door. His eyebrows were raised and the corners of his mouth as well. "I think I'd like that, yes, but maybe..."_

  
_"Oh damn, we gotta hide better than that, is that it? We can find somewhere better uh, up a few floors?"_

  
_"Great." Jim had smiled, so hard, and they'd gone up the stairs, laughing quietly even as Jim stole glances behind them. Just making sure._

  
Jim would always remember that night, would always remember the tentative way they'd both reached for each other, not knowing where to put their hands or were to look and ultimately, wordlessly deciding that Jim would lead, and that hooking their gazes together was the best thing they could be doing. It was. It always was. Jim could get lost looking into Tony's chocolate brown eyes, could let himself sway in their depths and sparkles, and he got to do that, anytime Tony would let his guard down enough not to crack a joke every three seconds. 

  
He would always remember how they'd both reached closer, and leaned further until they breathed the very same air, until looking into Tony's gaze meant going cross-eyed, until their mouths had brushed against one another for the very first time. Always. 

  
They'd danced, gently, to the careful, crystalline notes of piano, and to the more rhythmic but equally melodious ones of the violin that came after. By a miracle Jim dared name real life - as opposed to the tropey romcoms he would _never_ admit to binging on lonely nights - they managed to stay there the remainder of the night and not get interrupted, something Jim was thankful for to this day, and cherished with all his heart. The first time he’d held Tony and they'd both knew what it really meant. The first time Tony had done that thing of his where he scratched the back of Jim's neck while looking at his lips, not bold enough to reach up himself. The first time Jim had been able to say the words that stayed with them all those years later. 

  
_"About fucking time."_

* * *

"Pops? Where are you hiding?"

  
"In here," Jim called, looking around himself at the mess of papers and photographs he'd made in the few hours he'd been awake but hadn't wanted to leave his bed either. 

  
Morgan passed her head in the doorway and Jim ushered her inside. 

  
"Close the door behind you." He asked, whispering even though they both knew Tony wasn't due back from his shopping for another hour or so. 

  
"What are you up to in here, Rhodes Senior?"

  
Jim groaned, "I wish you wouldn't call me that."

  
"Tough life." His daughter grinned as she let the door fall open behind her and carefully perched herself at the edge of the bed, reaching for one of the photographs right away. "Did you just empty all the family albums on your bed?" She raised an eyebrow at him. 

  
"Don't look at me like that, I'm not being sentimental just… _senior_ , I guess. Wanna be sure I'm not forgetting anything."

  
"Write that down, too, you might--"

  
"Forget. Ha. Ha. Ha. Another thing I failed at, not allowing you to get Tony's sense of humor." Jim sighed dramatically. 

  
Morgan faked a glare but easily came back to her initial questioning, "What chapter are you at?" 

  
Jim smiled, "Yours."

  
_"Yes," Jim only saw Pepper's grin through his tears, and the pain that was also joy of Tony's hands crushing his own. "Yes, I'll carry your baby. Yes."_

  
_A sob followed, then another, and before anyone could add anything, Tony was crushing both Pepper and Jim in a clinging hug that Jim would feel in his bones for years to come. They were lucky enough that they became pregnant on the first try, even luckier that they were all such good friends that the decision to parent this child to come together never suffered any doubts, the luckiest that they were all complementary enough that one of them always sort of knew what they were doing, or enough to calm the others down for nine months._

  
_January 9, 2012, the day that changed Pepper, Tony and Jim's lives forever. The day Pepper became the mother of their child, the day they all met their daughter for the first time and cried the hardest they had ever done._

  
_Morgan Rhodes was born, a small four-and-a-half pounds angel crying at the top of her lungs as much as she smiled as wide as her baby lips would go._

  
_Three grown people, reduced to gaga cooing and misty eyes and trembling hands that got steadier than platinum alloy when they held their little girl._

  
Twenty-two years in, Morgan had given birth herself, to twins that drove her equally crazy and soft as her parents had been. Alexis and Martin weren't planned like Morgan had been but God did the three of them get on board when Morgan made her decision to keep them and raise them - on her own she'd said, the joke, she'd never be on her own. 

  
"I got the dress by the way. It's in my room, behind the camping gear you never use." Morgan said, snapping Jim of his zoning out. 

  
"You did?" He grinned. "Dad's gonna lose his mind, you know that, right?"

  
"I think seeing you in that tux is what's gonna make him lose it, Pops."

  
"Well, sure," Jim shrugged, "I'm kinda counting on that, never too old to t--"

  
"Aaah, shut up! I do _not_ want to know." 

  
They laughed together and went back to looking at the pictures that littered the comforter, Morgan sliding up and under the covers to look through them with her dad. It's how Tony found them when he came back, barely giving Jim time to hide his notebook behind his pillow before he opened the door and joined them. 

  
"What's up?" 

  
"Pops' being mushy." Morgan piped up, chuckling at Jim's protests.

  
Tony grinned, kissing Jim's cheek and whispering, "Oh, I hear old age does that to a man."

  
"I hate you." Jim crossed his arms. 

  
"Lies." 

* * *

He shouldn't have felt stressed-out, reaching sixty years old and being a mess of nerves for a thing they'd already done two whole decades earlier made no sense. And yet. 

  
Jim watched himself in the mirror of the master bathroom door. He turned, one way, then the other. He checked his cufflinks. He straightened his tie. He passed his hands in hair he didn't have anymore. He smoothed his immaculate shirt. 

  
He made no sense and there was nothing he could do about it. Renewing one's vows really was a big fucking deal even if it felt much safer than the first time Jim had put on some version of the tux he was wearing. Knowing he was expected outside so he could wait for Tony to come out of the house right now, knowing his heart would beat even harder than it was already beating, and how he'd grin - and probably cry, no point in fooling himself there - in front of their handful of most trusted, most loved friends and family members, made Jim's hands shake. No it had nothing to do with his age. 

  
_Sentiments. Argh, well. Couldn't fake it here either._

  
"Alright, Colonel, en marche."

  
Neither Jim nor Tony had wanted to make too big of a fuss out of this new ceremony. Something small, something sweet, something warm. Pepper and Morgan had been all too happy to matters into their own hands. 

  
An arch had been put by the end of the yard, two rows of chairs on each side of a center path that they'd formed out of a thick cream white outside carpet. It was pretty, elegant, and Jim almost didn't feel ridiculous standing on one side of the arch, stealing glances at Steve, who'd been charged with officiating duties, then at Pepper and Happy, sat on the opposite side from Bucky and Natasha. Stephen and Christine were seated right behind them, the twins half-jumping half-dozing next to them, and behind Happy and Pepper, Carol and the Marias - as Jim always called them in his head.

  
The one thing his gaze always glued itself back to was the back door of the house though. He played with the lapels of his jackets as he waited for Tony to finally open it, and walk down here and…

  
And here he was. 

  
If Jim had thought he was having trouble fixing his gaze somewhere, even from one side of the yard to the other, he could tell Tony wasn't faring much better. His own gaze was going up and down Tony's tuxedo-shaped body, marvelling at how well he always could pull those off, how graceful he was in the most uncomfortable clothes ever designed. Jim had to remember to close his mouth - not very fitting for a gentleman, right?

  
Tony's eyes made a back and forth between grinning at Rhodey, winking at him, and - the closest he got, the more Jim could see - looking at their daughter in her mother's midnight blue dress with eyes so full of love they were misted over. 

  
"Morning, Rhodey bear,"

  
"Hello, Tones," 

  
Morgan took her place at Tony's back and with one last look at their audience, Jim and Tony took each other's hand and turned to Steve. Jim heard little of what Steve said, heard all of Tony's words like they were coming out of his own mouth, heard none of his own voice as he said it again, word for word, the promise he'd made Tony twenty years before. 

  
_"I, take you, Anthony, to be my wedded husband, to have and to hold, since forever and forever, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part. I pledge myself to you and ask that always you know, you are all there is for me, and all I've ever wanted. I vow to be the husband you need and want, every day that we shall have, for every need and whim you may find yourself in and drag me into. I love you and always will."_

  
Steve said they could kiss and they did, the way they always did when surrounded as they were, a peck of their lips meeting and their eyes saying much much more than the soft contact could ever say. Morgan hugged them and kissed their respective cheeks. Everyone got up and patted them on the back, fetching chairs and drinks to share in the yard now that they were all crying and that pictures had been taken. 

  
It was time.

  
"Come with me?" Jim said, tugging on Tony's hand and smiling when Tony only frowned in answer. 

  
He led him to the kitchen, dropping his hand just as they passed the threshold to get the notebook from the cupboard he'd hidden it in. Tony shifted on his feet as he waited, his cheeks still slightly flushed with the emotions of their vows. 

  
"What do you have there?" He said when Jim moved closer again, the wrapped notebook in hand. 

  
"Nothing much." Jim answered, steadying his hands as he handed him the package and watched Tony tear through the paper. 

  
Tony frowned as he saw the cover of it - a nondescript, fabric-covered A4 notebook the likes of which you could find anywhere. He flicked through the pages and stopped as he immediately fell on the Morgan's ultrasound. He gazed at Jim with fresh tears forming in his eyes, and flicked again, finding their old MIT student card taped on one page, old sticky notes pasted next to them. 

  
"What…?" Tony stopped as he took in a deep breath. 

  
Jim walked even closer, until they stood chest to chest. He took the notebook away from Tony's hands and placed it on the windowsill on his left. He brushed their lips together before whispering in his ear.

  
"I wrote it all down so you wouldn't forget." 

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on [Tumblr](http://hogwartstoalexandria.tumblr.com) and [Nonexistenz](http://nonexistenz.tumblr.com) as well!


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